Over 91% of Azerbaijanis vote for extending president's term

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijanis have overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes extending President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power in a referendum denounced by opposition and rights groups as a ploy to cement the Aliyev family's dynastic rule, AFP reports.

With all ballots counted from Monday, September 26's nationwide referendum, more than 91 percent of voters had approved constitutional amendments extending the president's term in office from five to seven years, the Central Election Commission said on Tuesday, adding that turnout was 69.7 percent.

Other changes endorsed in the referendum introduce a new position of powerful first vice president, who will rule in the president's absence, and also allow the president to call snap leadership polls at will and easily dissolve parliament.

Another amendment to axe the current age minimum of 35 for standing as president has been criticised by Aliyev's opponents as a scheme to pave the way for his children to take the helm one day.

Aliyev has two prominent socialite daughters Leyla, 32, and Arzu, 27, and a student son, Heydar, 19.

Opposition groups staged protests ahead of the ballot, attacking it as a bid to extend the Aliyev family's more-than two-decade grip on the levers of power.

The authorities have dismissed the criticism, arguing that constitutional reform would streamline running of the country.

In contrast, the Council of Europe's constitutional law experts said the draft changes to the constitution "would severely upset the balance of power" and give the president "unprecedented" authority, AFP says.

Amnesty International said the amendments would lead to violations of the right to freedom of association and that the vote "has been accompanied by arrests and intimidation" of critics.

Aliyev, 54, has led the ex-Soviet country since his father Heydar, a former Communist-era boss, died after a decade in power in 2003.

He won a landslide election victory in 2013 despite OSCE observers pointing to significant problems with the vote. The next elections will be held in 2018.

He is allowed to stand for an unlimited number of presidential terms after a previous disputed referendum in 2009 scrapped a two-term limit.

Activists have raised concerns over Azerbaijan’s poor rights record, with Human Rights Watch in May accused the country of cracking down on activists and critical journalists.

"President Ilham Aliyev is the person most responsible for Azerbaijan's appalling human rights record of the last decade," Freedom House, a pro-democracy watchdog, said last week.